Quick, Inexpensive, Last Minute Holiday Season Marketing Tips for Small Businesses

It is that time of year again, the Holiday Season is upon us and it would appear that businesses everywhere are pulling out all the stops and utilizing various techniques to attract customers. However, as a small business you face different challenges than your larger competitors and perhaps none more so than the limitation of a big marketing budget.  With a little creativity though, some hard work, and resourcefulness there are still a number of holiday marketing tactics that you can implement quickly that will not break the bank.

Give a Free Gift with Purchase

Everybody loves free stuff so why not entice your customers by offering a free gift with a purchase. When implementing this tactic though, it is important to keep your customers in mind and provide them with something of value/need/use. Or provide them with a gift that they could perhaps give to someone else to use. This has an added bonus of brand marketing to another potential customer.

Price Leaders

Take a page out of the Automotive industry and mark-down one or a couple of products/services to draw in customers. Send them a quick email highlighting the promotion and “tease” them by letting them know that there are other items and deals. Everybody loves a deal or value purchase, plus, it allows you the opportunity to showcase, and up-sell, other items at different price levels. It is important to keep in mind that everyone’s budget is different and by providing a wide array of products/services at various price points gives you a greater opportunity to convert a customer.

Coupons

Send out some coupons. Coupons and shopping go hand-in-hand, especially during the holiday season. It’s all psychological. People are more likely to purchase a product/service if they feel like they are getting more value for their purchase and saving money. It incentives them to buy when the perhaps might not. Again though, keep in mind your customers and present them with a coupon of some value which they could use. And make it easy to redeem. Nothing is more annoying than having to jump through hoops in order to redeem a coupon.

Friends and Family Coupons

Why not go a step further with a coupon idea and provide your customers with “Friends and Family” coupons as well. What’s better than being able to market to additional people and potentially new customers for FREE!? Plus, since there is already an established relationship between the parties, you have already gained some credibility and trust. This is a perfect recipe for new business marketing.

These tips obviously assume you are/have been capturing your customers’ information, and hopefully you’ve been communicating with them on a more consistent basis. If you haven’t done so, well not too worry as we at instantbusinesslist.com can help you reach your target audience quickly and inexpensively with one of our business mailing lists or business email lists. Simply give us a call at 888-474-6021 and a knowledgeable customer service representative will assist you.

Whether you are an established business, or an entrepreneur starting a company ready to reach for your dreams, the journey is sometimes more difficult and demanding than you could anticipate and success can be more elusive than you can imagine. More times than not resulting in a failed business. The ideas, strategies and research compiled are all wasted because these companies miss an important element in their planning; yes, a Business List. No business owner should overlook such a key ingredient to success because they can provide more leads than all the other strategies combined.

A good business list can help make it all come together enabling a business to focus their best efforts and marketing strategies into a database of highly targeted individuals who are more likely to purchase your product/service. So many businesses focus their efforts into their marketing strategy making sure their mailing pieces are bright and bold, their message and branding are clearly stated Their website is well designed and thought out with their customer in mind, subliminally directing them to what they should be doing/seeing. So much work is invested into understanding their target audience. Sales pitches and marketing copy are created with all this in mind, tweaked and rehearsed a thousand times over based on tireless market research. Until a full bodied marketing strategy and web presence is finalized and put in place.

Thus with all the work poured into these elements most would expect that success is right around the corner, but sadly this isn’t always the case. Yes, perhaps the product is flawlessly designed and packaged; and yes, perhaps the sales speech is perfectly rehearsed and website optimized for the best consumer experience. However, all of this is wasted if you are not speaking to the right audience/consumer. If the people you are speaking to have no interest or will never have any interest in purchasing your product or service it wouldn’t matter if you were giving it away.

This is where a Business List that is highly targeted comes into play. Where all the aforementioned work that went into the product, branding, marketing and sales pitches can be effectively utilized. Once a business begins speaking to more qualified consumers, consumers who are more likely to purchase your product/service, leads start to be transformed into sales. Yes, the almighty sales; the gasoline for the business engine. Speaking to someone who is more inclined to need/want your product or service obviously provides a greater chance of having the individual “buy” right away or perhaps keep you in mind when they are ready to buy in the future, which in the end could mean the difference between success or failure.

Technology has made it even easier to construct full-blown email marketing campaigns. However don’t rest on your marketing laurels and fall into “marketing content traps” that make your emails unreadable, uninteresting and obnoxious. Below are a couple of pitfalls to avoid.

1. Annoyingly excessive use of punctuation marks, ALL CAPS, symbols, etc…Stay away. People will more than likely interpret it as SPAM and delete your message without giving it a second thought…or so you hope, otherwise it could be worse and be labeled “spam” so future emails get sent directly into the Spam Folder. Plus it is pretty tacky. It is extremely difficult to express emotion in an email and don’t think by using the aforementioned tricks will get it done. It takes more than some tricks to have a successful email marketing campaign.

2. Non-descriptive and uninviting Subject Line. Interesting I have this next behind the use of “annoyingly excessive use of punctuation marks…”. However you can still create interesting and enticing subject lines without having to add some cheesy flare to it using ALL CAPS!!!! Don’t scream at me. Tell me, the customer, why I should read your email. What benefit will it have for the customer? Keep them interesting as possible as it will help improve the open rate…but don’t try and deceive. Be honest and upfront or risk having your customer send your company’s future messages into the dreaded Spam Folder.

3. Content that is too long. People don’t want to invest a lot of time reading an email, or much of anything really in this day and age, but especially email. As much as possible, Emails need to be short, sweet and to the point. People are simply more inclined to read shorter, more concise emails even if they don’t respond to an offer or reply to the message. They will at least read it and perhaps respond at a later date. If the message or article requires more space simply summarize the point and use a link to your website where people can go read the rest later.

4. Repeating the same message over and over again. Repetition is good in some ways, and I would recommend staying in touch with your audience. However, if in your email marketing message you continue to say the same thing, well, ever heard the expression; fell on deaf ears? People will begin to tune you out and when you actually have something pertinent, it will be missed. Try to keep the messages a little fresh so that people will continue to at least open them and see what you have to say.

5. Poorly constructed and cluttered layouts. Too many people think that they need to have all these images, links, and colors in their email for it to be deemed “good” or have a chance at it being successful. Again, know your audience. People tend to enjoy more simplified, easy to read and navigate emails. Cluttered or simply emails that present themselves as being too busy overwhelm people thus having a tendency to be trashed immediately. Now these tactics may in fact enhance the email, but as my dad would always tell me; everything in moderation. Too many images and links are distracting. You would hate it if it distracted the reader from your main point, wouldn’t you?

I was speaking with a friend the other day, a small business owner in NY, about his sales and marketing strategy and what he should do in these tough economic times. We discussed it thoroughly and interestingly enough came out with some new ideas and focus. Below is a general overview of the principals, ideas and strategies that came out of that conversation which helped transform his sales and marketing plan moving into 2009. Perhaps you are already using some, if not all, of the following in your own sales and marketing plan. If not, maybe it will at least get you thinking and perhaps even gets you to reevaluate your plan so as to ensure it is properly focused and getting the most bang for its buck.

1. Retention: Customer retention should be #1 on any business owners’ priority list. However many businesses seem to neglect this market segment perhaps thinking that they have their business already and their customers are loyal. Right? Wrong! Competition is fierce, and in this day in age where everyone is vying for attention and the economy is tight, you need to be actively communicating with this audience so that they are not “distracted” by other companies and go elsewhere. Remind them of why it benefits them to buy from you and remain as a customer.

2. Reacquire/Reactivate Customers: The most overlooked yet an easy and perhaps the most cost effective revenue generating avenue a business can pursue is to simply reengage and try to “reactivate” previous customers. Perhaps refresh their memory of who you are, why it would benefit them to do business with you and get creative with an offer. Or get them engaged somehow. Offer them something free with no obligation.

3. Direct Mailings: Now is a time perhaps to mail a little less and get smarter, more strategic about it. Make sure your list is up-to-date and addresses are accurate. Don’t waste money by sending mailings that will be undeliverable. Verify addresses. It’s worth the upfront expense. You may also seek alternative solutions and buy a business mailing list to help supplement your sales and marketing campaign so as to reach a wider and more targeted audience.

4. Email Marketing: The cheapest way to communicate, market your goods/services and gain instant results. This is a technology driven world and most everyone has an email address. As with direct mail, obviously your customer or prospecting database will be the most effective and the cheapest. Otherwise, and again, research other means by which to obtain business email lists. With the click of a mouse you could be sending out thousands upon thousands of emails.

5. Online Marketing: Many companies in 2009 are focusing their marketing dollars online with tools such as banner ads, adword campaigns, online videos and social media outlets. Online marketing has seen the greatest increase in spending during the last few months as it cost less than traditional media and you can track results. They key is to test and re-test. Make sure you are sending the right message and targeting the right audience before initiating any big campaigns.

6. Be Really Creative: Whether it is direct mail, email or banner ad, all communications can be improved upon and every offer can be more inviting/tempting. This goes back to my earlier point with respect to talking to your customers and potential customers alike about why your products and services are better and how they will benefit by purchasing them. And great creative with the offers as well. Be bold and enticing!

7. Competition: Be sure you are paying attention to your competition and what they are doing with their marketing. What offers are they presenting? Who are they targeting? What marketing vehicles and mediums are they using? They may have a good idea that you could copy and/or use to your advantage. Don’t be too proud and not use someone else’s ideas. If it is good, use it. Why reinvent the wheel?